Maximising the lifetime of your UHV Design product

The Importance of Periodic Regreasing

To ensure the longevity and optimal performance of your UHV Design products, periodic regreasing is vital. This maintenance step is relevant for all products with leadscrews, such as Linear Shift Mechanisms and motorised Power Probes. Regular regreasing helps to reduce friction, prevent wear and tear, and maintain the smooth operation of your equipment. By following this simple yet crucial maintenance practice, you can significantly extend the lifetime of your UHV Design products and ensure they continue to perform at their best for many years to come.

Leadscrews should be inspected every 1000 cycles or 5 x 24 hour bakeout cycles. Grease should have an even coating with no gaps.

Leadscrew grease is offered in 5ml syringes by UHV Design.

Proper Support for Power Probes

Properly supporting the rear of a Power Probe is vital to maintain its lifetime and performance. The Power Probe body tube has a thin wall construction to maximize the magnetic coupling, which necessitates a support with longer strokes.

A Power Probe is often positioned at the perfect height to use as a handhold when a user is moving around the chamber – the additional weight of a person could cause permanent damage if unsupported!

The Power Probe has an M6 tapped hole in the middle of the end cap where a support bracket could be attached.

A sticker is added to the rear of the unit to highlight this requirement:

Once a support is in place, place a spirit level on the probe to ensure that it is straight across the entirety of travel, as both over-supporting and under-supporting can have the same effect. A properly supported probe can run smoothly for decades, ensuring consistent and reliable performance.

As well as ensuring the optimum performance of the Power Probe, fitting a support prevents an adverse turning moment being applied to your chamber port.

Inadequate support is one of the most common causes of transfer arm performance issues, so be sure to fit one when first mounted.

Avoid Over-Travel Damage With Proper Limit Switch Integration  

Units equipped with limit switches should have these switches properly integrated into the control system before operating the unit. Limit switches are critical safety components designed to prevent overtravel and potential damage. While products are engineered with hard stops to physically restrict movement beyond safe limits, relying solely on these mechanical stops can result in excessive wear or damage over time. Ignoring limit switches or failing to incorporate them into the control logic increases the risk of damaging the actuator.

Ensuring Proper In-Vacuum Support for Optimal Performance

Proper in-vacuum support may be required to ensure that products are used within their specifications, but this can be easily overlooked.

A simple support may be required to ensure that products are used within their specifications. For example, roll-to-roll conveyors could be used to support a horizontal Power Probe output shaft along the full length of travel, or a V-roller guide could be moved into position when the output shaft is at full extension.

Similarly, a support for a MagiDrive can ensure that the runout from a customer’s design does not put an excessive side load on the bearings.

This could take the form of an extended bearing housing which forms part of the drive design. If this is of interest, please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Alternatively, this could be a bearing or bush assembly mounted elsewhere in the customer’s assembly. This is something that UHVD incorporates with our larger assemblies, such as the MultiCentre:

It may not prove to be required, but additional support should certainly be considered as part of the system design with both horizontal and vertically mounted products to ensure that the weight limits are not accidentally exceeded.

Design for Reality: Addressing Misalignment in Your System

When using modelling software, everything lines up perfectly, but reality is another thing. Chambers have welded ports, products have inherent tolerances, and gravity is unavoidable. Not accounting for these variables can over-constrain a product and affect performance. To combat this, you could consider the following solutions:

• Flexures: A flexure allows a shaft to flex elastically when a force is applied. Adding this to shafts can help accommodate misalignments elsewhere in the system and ensure smooth operation.

• In-Vacuum Supports: Proper in-vacuum supports can be added to maintain alignment and to ensure that weight limits are not accidentally exceeded.
• Port Aligners: These can be used to account for the natural deflection of a transfer arm output shaft, ensuring precise alignment. If one is required for your design, please contact us.

• TTX, LSMX, or LSMT: UHV Design offers various products that provide additional linear or tilt motions to assist with initial alignment, making them a valuable addition to your system design.

By incorporating these solutions, you can ensure that your system design remains robust and performs optimally, even in the face of real-world challenges.

Protect Your Equipment: Remove Key Components Before Bakeout

Depending on the application, it may be necessary to bake the system to remove water vapour and achieve lower (UHV and XHV) pressures.

While UHVD products are all bakeable to 250 ͦC, certain components - such as motors and pneumatic cylinders - must be removed beforehand to prevent damage and maintain the life and performance of the unit they are mounted to. By removing motors and pneumatic cylinders before bakeout, you can ensure that your UHV Design products continue to operate efficiently and reliably for many years.

Adhering to Product Specifications

To ensure the longevity and performance of your UHV Design products, it is crucial not to exceed the product specifications. Product datasheets are available on all product pages on the UHV Design website. These datasheets provide detailed information on the operational limits and capabilities of each product.

If there is any concern that a specification may be exceeded, please contact UHV Design to discuss your application. Our team may have suggestions on alternative products or ideas on how to mitigate the excessive values, ensuring that your equipment continues to operate efficiently and reliably.

By following the tips outlined in this post, you can enhance product reliability, which reduces downtime and saves costs in the long run.

For more information or support, please contact our team who can assist you with any questions you may have.